This is really easy. High Def Video Input Card and a big ass hard drive. And I have 10 year old DVD-R's that still play just like the day they were burned, 20 year old VHS tapes are not going to retain the same quality they had when they were freshly recorded, unless you kept them in a completely static free, oxygen free environment. Something tells me that's not the case.
Let's be fair. The Bush administration got raked over the coals (rightly so) for using private webmail accounts to keep a lot of internal discussions off of public records. That's a big no-no. The Obama administration doing it is no more right than any other administration doing it. Keep the personal email for personal use. But it shouldn't be used for government business. Chances of him not using it at all for business related to his position within the Obama administration: Probably greater than 50% is what I'm guessing. If he's got nothing to hide, he should let a private auditor go over his gmail account to ensure that nothing government business related is on the gmail account, and if there is anything there government business related, he should disclose this and make those emails part of the White House document chain.
The sad thing is people don't expect this at all. They hope for it, but they certainly (mostly) know better than to expect it. Obama's brand of change is no different than the brand of change pushed by any politician who's ever promised "change." The only difference is more people are willingly allowing the proverbial wool to be pulled over their eyes.
- It's Super VHS so it produces DVD quality recordings.
False. Just because it records 420 lines of resolution does not make it "DVD Quality." VHS, S-VHS, and even Betamax and other tape formats did not handle things such as audio recording and chroma signal as well as true digital recordings do. But even from a simple resolution standpoint, S-VHS I believe recorded at 560x480, which doesn't even touch DVD resolution. Add to that the extra bandwidth for proper color resolution and digital audio, and there really isn't even a comparison.
- If I want to keep a recording it's as easy as popping-out the tape and putting it on the shelf.
The shelf life for the quality to remain similar to when it was recorded is no more than about 10-15 years. Yeah, they'll last longer than that, but the quality of the recording goes down as the tape ages. DVDs last much longer assuming they are reasonably cared for, and video stored in a digital format can easily be copied without a degrade in quality. Copies of magnetic cassettes? Not so much.
- (Main reason.) I have about $1000 worth of bought tapes and blanks, and it seems silly to just throw them away that much money.
So transfer them to a digital medium such as hard disks. Using the right equipment you won't lose a whole lot in quality (as if they are hi-fidelity as they are), and they'll actually last a lot longer.
- Also lots of my home movies are stored on VHS. I need some way to play them.
See my last point. Honestly, your VCR or VHS tapes will not outlive you. If you want to keep those memories, transferring to a digital medium (and making a few backups just in case the worst were to happen) would be smart. Heck, I'd make at least one copy that you store away in a safe deposit box or fireproof safe, so that you really make sure and keep them for a while. If those VHS tapes go up in smoke, adios amigo (assuming you have some home videos in there you wouldn't want to lose).
My thoughts exactly, Comcast is about a decade or two late to the party. Who the fuck seriously still has a VCR that is used regularly. And no, not the VCR you keep in the closet so that you can bust out some old home movies or old Disney Videos every once in a while, but a VCR that still gets regular everyday use?
What he failed to glean from my post to begin with is the fact that there very well may be some truth to both arguments. Who's to say there is a god or not. Most of the world in some fashion says yes. That's not to say that everything in the bible/koran/insert other religious books here is true or right, but that also does not completely invalidate the possibility of a higher order. One thing I do not believe in is that all this just came to be because of random events. I do believe that there is a God that helped all of this come about. But that's not to say that the idea of Creationism is really correct either. But most people who are radical, one way or another, would have you believe that it's gotta be one way or another, and that there's no way that their way of thinking is flawed at all. I (along with a good portion of the population of this world) think more along the lines of somewhere in-between. The parent is a moron because he paints things with a very broad brush and hides behind a facade of "Let everyone believe what they want" *wink wink even though they're all fucking morons if they don't believe as I do*. I'm done with this discussion, mostly because people who rail on people who believe in God are just as blind and hateful as religious radicals who say that everyone who disagrees with them are going to hell.
Because of course you know everything that was and is, right? Good we have you around to identify all of the "morons" for us. Otherwise I don't know how we'd make do.
I don't understand why some people believe that it must be one or the other. I think I'm one of a large group of moderate conservatives who believe that religion and creationism can coexist. While I personally believe that none of this just randomly happened, I also do believe this is a good portion of the bible that is meant to be taken metaphorically, not to mention that a good deal of the meat of the bible has morphed over centuries of retranslations. Just as it is wrong for someone who is Pro-Creationism to call someone who is Pro-Evolution a moron who believes in fantasies, it is also wrong for the opposite to happen. Yet somehow our society has gotten to the point where if you do not agree with someone else, you are a radical quack who is doing the equivalent of smoking crack and jerking off to the *insert religious book or random science book here* and pictures of *insert random radical on the left or right here* having sex with a donkey. I mean seriously, it doesn't really matter what you believe anymore. There is a group of people ready to eat you alive metaphorically speaking no matter what you believe. I think most of us are sitting here in the moderate middle just shaking our heads and hoping all of the radical groups on both sides just shut the fuck up and go away.
Not sure on sources for some of the stuff, but I do know that the CDC put out a report on the high number of premature viable babies born in this country far exceed those born in the average European or Asian country. A lot of this is attributed to health issues with mothers in the US where a doctor has to induce early to protect the baby, and also for other concerns about the mother. It is true that our ability to care for premature babies is much greater than that in a typical European country. We spend a lot more money researching medical techniques and drugs that allow for this. We also spend a lot more money and time training our doctors. Unfortunately, equally contributing to this factor is that we have a lot more unhealthy mothers with diabetes, high blood pressure, and other risk factors that could result in stillborn babies. So it's equal parts medical technology and medical necessity that results in the increase in premature births.
I'm shocked that the same White House that distorts facts and fair analysis of information to serve their own needs then gets pissy when someone else does it. Then again, I guess I'm not really shocked...
Consider yourself lucky. Most of today's MMOs (WoW included) are complete shit designed to suck people in and then make them do repetitive tasks. I myself am an admitted victim, as I play Star Trek Online (which is a subpar game but I like it just for the space battles which at least somewhat satisfy my inner Trek nerd). I always wanted a Trek RPG but pictured a game where you were a ship that would go on dynamically generated missions and you could free roam the ship or switch to a tactical outside the ship view. Sadly, the game I had in mind was never fully realized.
I am a reformed FFXI, WoW, LOTRO, and Everquest 2 player, and will never go back to any of those games. They are all basically similar games with slightly different mechanics and different graphical wrappers surrounding the same bland gameplay. I wish we'd get a truly unique new RPG.
Before the MUDs was D&D. That was the ultimate multiplayer game (although really it wasn't an MMO as you were limited to how many people you could gather together). But your only limit was imagination (and how big of a douche bag your DM was)
Fees for any overdrafts that may occur. You make the initial point that fees could result from overdrafts, and then you pretend you never said that in order to try to build up a straw man argument. Good job trying to deflect, but you are just proving that you don't know what the hell you are talking about and then you just try attacks to deflect from the fact that you are indeed wrong.
Also, the Zero Liability Policy covers unauthorized charges also dealing with disputes that do not pertain to fraud, such as when a merchant charges to much, charges multiple times for one purchase, or charges for goods that are not eventually received. Dude, I work for such an institution and process these claims on a daily basis. I know what the fuck I'm talking about.
More FUD. Go read the laws on the books. The US Government does not distinguish between Credit Cards and other EFT Transfers. It's all under the same law. The dispute process you are referring to is something set forth by Visa, not the Federal Government. The Federal Gov't just dictates what the financial institutions can and cannot do.
If it has a Visa logo on it, Visa extends the very same protection to a Visa debit card as they do to a Credit Card. The one difference is the fact that it draws from a deposit account, so instantly, the money is on hold, whereas with a credit card, it was never your money to begin with, but just a credit line extended to you. However, as with a credit card, you are given a provisional credit for the charges you are disputing until the dispute is complete. This is definitely important as the dispute process can take anywhere from a week to 2-3 months, depending on the institution and if the merchant is cooperative or not.
No. Still run through your bank, and you still have to beg your bank.
Whoever you spoke to at your credit union was an idiot. Visa only requires a card reissue on issues of FRAUD, not disputes. Good thing you left them if they closed a card anytime you had a DISPUTE.
The fees of that one overdraft, yes. Are you asserting that all overdraft charges from the time of that one charge until the time the disputed amount is credited to the account will also be covered? That's the assertion you'd have to make for me to be wrong, and you have been asserting that I'm ignorant without addressing the comments I made. Address the comments or quit insinuating that I'm wrong.
Okay let's address this. You are 100% wrong. Any institution that participates in Visa's Zero Liability policy will give a provisional credit including fees resulting until the dispute process is complete. If your personal bank doesn't do so, that means they don't participate and you were a dumb fuck for not doing your research before you starting doing business with them. That's on you, bro. If that's the case, I feel for you, but it's all on you. Let's see you try to turn this statement back around like you are attempting (poorly I might add) to turn around everything I say.
My point is that the lack of zero liability with pin-based transactions doesn't apply in this case. No one is paying for Warhammer with a pin-based transaction.
The fees of that one overdraft, yes. Are you asserting that all overdraft charges from the time of that one charge until the time the disputed amount is credited to the account will also be covered? That's the assertion you'd have to make for me to be wrong, and you have been asserting that I'm ignorant without addressing the comments I made. Address the comments or quit insinuating that I'm wrong.
I don't know who the hell you bank with but you need to run, and run fast. I bank with an institution that not only gives a provisional credit during the dispute (as per guidelines by Visa's Zero Liability Policy) but also for the fees themselves until the dispute process is COMPLETE. I guess if you are with some crummy bank like Bank of America or something like that, than yeah, you are probably out of luck. I'll just thank my lucky stars I actually do business with a good institution.
When does someone pay a fucking MMO subscription with a pin-based transaction. Show me when that's ever happened, short of buying a time card at a store.
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This is really easy. High Def Video Input Card and a big ass hard drive. And I have 10 year old DVD-R's that still play just like the day they were burned, 20 year old VHS tapes are not going to retain the same quality they had when they were freshly recorded, unless you kept them in a completely static free, oxygen free environment. Something tells me that's not the case.
Let's be fair. The Bush administration got raked over the coals (rightly so) for using private webmail accounts to keep a lot of internal discussions off of public records. That's a big no-no. The Obama administration doing it is no more right than any other administration doing it. Keep the personal email for personal use. But it shouldn't be used for government business. Chances of him not using it at all for business related to his position within the Obama administration: Probably greater than 50% is what I'm guessing. If he's got nothing to hide, he should let a private auditor go over his gmail account to ensure that nothing government business related is on the gmail account, and if there is anything there government business related, he should disclose this and make those emails part of the White House document chain.
I am not and have never been a Google employee.
So you are saying you are evil?
The sad thing is people don't expect this at all. They hope for it, but they certainly (mostly) know better than to expect it. Obama's brand of change is no different than the brand of change pushed by any politician who's ever promised "change." The only difference is more people are willingly allowing the proverbial wool to be pulled over their eyes.
- It's Super VHS so it produces DVD quality recordings.
False. Just because it records 420 lines of resolution does not make it "DVD Quality." VHS, S-VHS, and even Betamax and other tape formats did not handle things such as audio recording and chroma signal as well as true digital recordings do. But even from a simple resolution standpoint, S-VHS I believe recorded at 560x480, which doesn't even touch DVD resolution. Add to that the extra bandwidth for proper color resolution and digital audio, and there really isn't even a comparison.
- If I want to keep a recording it's as easy as popping-out the tape and putting it on the shelf.
The shelf life for the quality to remain similar to when it was recorded is no more than about 10-15 years. Yeah, they'll last longer than that, but the quality of the recording goes down as the tape ages. DVDs last much longer assuming they are reasonably cared for, and video stored in a digital format can easily be copied without a degrade in quality. Copies of magnetic cassettes? Not so much.
- (Main reason.) I have about $1000 worth of bought tapes and blanks, and it seems silly to just throw them away that much money.
So transfer them to a digital medium such as hard disks. Using the right equipment you won't lose a whole lot in quality (as if they are hi-fidelity as they are), and they'll actually last a lot longer.
- Also lots of my home movies are stored on VHS. I need some way to play them.
See my last point. Honestly, your VCR or VHS tapes will not outlive you. If you want to keep those memories, transferring to a digital medium (and making a few backups just in case the worst were to happen) would be smart. Heck, I'd make at least one copy that you store away in a safe deposit box or fireproof safe, so that you really make sure and keep them for a while. If those VHS tapes go up in smoke, adios amigo (assuming you have some home videos in there you wouldn't want to lose).
My thoughts exactly, Comcast is about a decade or two late to the party. Who the fuck seriously still has a VCR that is used regularly. And no, not the VCR you keep in the closet so that you can bust out some old home movies or old Disney Videos every once in a while, but a VCR that still gets regular everyday use?
What he failed to glean from my post to begin with is the fact that there very well may be some truth to both arguments. Who's to say there is a god or not. Most of the world in some fashion says yes. That's not to say that everything in the bible/koran/insert other religious books here is true or right, but that also does not completely invalidate the possibility of a higher order. One thing I do not believe in is that all this just came to be because of random events. I do believe that there is a God that helped all of this come about. But that's not to say that the idea of Creationism is really correct either. But most people who are radical, one way or another, would have you believe that it's gotta be one way or another, and that there's no way that their way of thinking is flawed at all. I (along with a good portion of the population of this world) think more along the lines of somewhere in-between. The parent is a moron because he paints things with a very broad brush and hides behind a facade of "Let everyone believe what they want" *wink wink even though they're all fucking morons if they don't believe as I do*. I'm done with this discussion, mostly because people who rail on people who believe in God are just as blind and hateful as religious radicals who say that everyone who disagrees with them are going to hell.
Because of course you know everything that was and is, right? Good we have you around to identify all of the "morons" for us. Otherwise I don't know how we'd make do.
Sorry, forgot to add that to my list. Yes, I'm a recovering EVE Online player too.
I don't understand why some people believe that it must be one or the other. I think I'm one of a large group of moderate conservatives who believe that religion and creationism can coexist. While I personally believe that none of this just randomly happened, I also do believe this is a good portion of the bible that is meant to be taken metaphorically, not to mention that a good deal of the meat of the bible has morphed over centuries of retranslations. Just as it is wrong for someone who is Pro-Creationism to call someone who is Pro-Evolution a moron who believes in fantasies, it is also wrong for the opposite to happen. Yet somehow our society has gotten to the point where if you do not agree with someone else, you are a radical quack who is doing the equivalent of smoking crack and jerking off to the *insert religious book or random science book here* and pictures of *insert random radical on the left or right here* having sex with a donkey. I mean seriously, it doesn't really matter what you believe anymore. There is a group of people ready to eat you alive metaphorically speaking no matter what you believe. I think most of us are sitting here in the moderate middle just shaking our heads and hoping all of the radical groups on both sides just shut the fuck up and go away.
Not sure on sources for some of the stuff, but I do know that the CDC put out a report on the high number of premature viable babies born in this country far exceed those born in the average European or Asian country. A lot of this is attributed to health issues with mothers in the US where a doctor has to induce early to protect the baby, and also for other concerns about the mother. It is true that our ability to care for premature babies is much greater than that in a typical European country. We spend a lot more money researching medical techniques and drugs that allow for this. We also spend a lot more money and time training our doctors. Unfortunately, equally contributing to this factor is that we have a lot more unhealthy mothers with diabetes, high blood pressure, and other risk factors that could result in stillborn babies. So it's equal parts medical technology and medical necessity that results in the increase in premature births.
I'm shocked that the same White House that distorts facts and fair analysis of information to serve their own needs then gets pissy when someone else does it. Then again, I guess I'm not really shocked...
Consider yourself lucky. Most of today's MMOs (WoW included) are complete shit designed to suck people in and then make them do repetitive tasks. I myself am an admitted victim, as I play Star Trek Online (which is a subpar game but I like it just for the space battles which at least somewhat satisfy my inner Trek nerd). I always wanted a Trek RPG but pictured a game where you were a ship that would go on dynamically generated missions and you could free roam the ship or switch to a tactical outside the ship view. Sadly, the game I had in mind was never fully realized.
I am a reformed FFXI, WoW, LOTRO, and Everquest 2 player, and will never go back to any of those games. They are all basically similar games with slightly different mechanics and different graphical wrappers surrounding the same bland gameplay. I wish we'd get a truly unique new RPG.
Before the MUDs was D&D. That was the ultimate multiplayer game (although really it wasn't an MMO as you were limited to how many people you could gather together). But your only limit was imagination (and how big of a douche bag your DM was)
Not to mention all of the MUDs around that helped pave the way for UO.
Oh good, so they won't get any Java in their iPads too. That helps when that time of the month rolls around as it's already a mess down there as is.
I guess this is also the one good thing for iPhone and iPod Touch users...since they can't run Java anyways, they are also immune.
Fees for any overdrafts that may occur. You make the initial point that fees could result from overdrafts, and then you pretend you never said that in order to try to build up a straw man argument. Good job trying to deflect, but you are just proving that you don't know what the hell you are talking about and then you just try attacks to deflect from the fact that you are indeed wrong.
Also, the Zero Liability Policy covers unauthorized charges also dealing with disputes that do not pertain to fraud, such as when a merchant charges to much, charges multiple times for one purchase, or charges for goods that are not eventually received. Dude, I work for such an institution and process these claims on a daily basis. I know what the fuck I'm talking about.
More FUD. Go read the laws on the books. The US Government does not distinguish between Credit Cards and other EFT Transfers. It's all under the same law. The dispute process you are referring to is something set forth by Visa, not the Federal Government. The Federal Gov't just dictates what the financial institutions can and cannot do.
If it has a Visa logo on it, Visa extends the very same protection to a Visa debit card as they do to a Credit Card. The one difference is the fact that it draws from a deposit account, so instantly, the money is on hold, whereas with a credit card, it was never your money to begin with, but just a credit line extended to you. However, as with a credit card, you are given a provisional credit for the charges you are disputing until the dispute is complete. This is definitely important as the dispute process can take anywhere from a week to 2-3 months, depending on the institution and if the merchant is cooperative or not.
No. Still run through your bank, and you still have to beg your bank.
Whoever you spoke to at your credit union was an idiot. Visa only requires a card reissue on issues of FRAUD, not disputes. Good thing you left them if they closed a card anytime you had a DISPUTE.
The fees of that one overdraft, yes. Are you asserting that all overdraft charges from the time of that one charge until the time the disputed amount is credited to the account will also be covered? That's the assertion you'd have to make for me to be wrong, and you have been asserting that I'm ignorant without addressing the comments I made. Address the comments or quit insinuating that I'm wrong.
Okay let's address this. You are 100% wrong. Any institution that participates in Visa's Zero Liability policy will give a provisional credit including fees resulting until the dispute process is complete. If your personal bank doesn't do so, that means they don't participate and you were a dumb fuck for not doing your research before you starting doing business with them. That's on you, bro. If that's the case, I feel for you, but it's all on you. Let's see you try to turn this statement back around like you are attempting (poorly I might add) to turn around everything I say.
My point is that the lack of zero liability with pin-based transactions doesn't apply in this case. No one is paying for Warhammer with a pin-based transaction.
The fees of that one overdraft, yes. Are you asserting that all overdraft charges from the time of that one charge until the time the disputed amount is credited to the account will also be covered? That's the assertion you'd have to make for me to be wrong, and you have been asserting that I'm ignorant without addressing the comments I made. Address the comments or quit insinuating that I'm wrong.
I don't know who the hell you bank with but you need to run, and run fast. I bank with an institution that not only gives a provisional credit during the dispute (as per guidelines by Visa's Zero Liability Policy) but also for the fees themselves until the dispute process is COMPLETE. I guess if you are with some crummy bank like Bank of America or something like that, than yeah, you are probably out of luck. I'll just thank my lucky stars I actually do business with a good institution.
When does someone pay a fucking MMO subscription with a pin-based transaction. Show me when that's ever happened, short of buying a time card at a store.